Barnsley Reproduction Build #18: Back to The Stretcher

It has been a while since I posted, but I have been working on the lower stretcher that connects the four legs. This is a repeat of what I did with the frame but the stretcher has a few additional features. The stretcher through mortises pass through the legs and since the joinery all shows it must be precise. In addition, the hayrake portion of the stretchers have curves cut into them which makes the glue up a bit more challenging. I am keeping the work pieces rectangular as long as possible and after all the joinery if finished, I will cut the curves.When joining the frame earlier, the most difficult part was dealing with the sharp 45 degree points on the mortises and tenons. I talked to a timber framer who said that in most timberframing 45 degree joints the points are squared off. While this slightly reduces the tenon size, it greatly simplifies the mortise chopping and also allows each piece of the assembly to be inserted and removed independently of the rest of the assembly. So that is what I did and the pencils above are pointing to the once sharp points which are now cut at 90 degrees.

When assembling the frame, i relied on the drawboring to pull the joints together and they moved slightly during the glue up. This time, I made clamping cauls that I will be able to pull tightly and align everything before the drawboring holes are drilled. The above is a dry run and the cross piece isn’t yet fitted perfectly. Next post will show more stretcher work.